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"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague." -Cicero

Anticipating Agenda 21: Framework for Global Governance

“Agenda 21, the action plan to implement the principles and agreements of Rio, is a blueprint for constructing the new world order called for at Rio. It is vital that people grasp this new vision of our future and understand how they can contribute to its realization". - Maurice Strong, Forward, The Earth Summit’s Agenda for Change.1 “With the end of the ideological conflict that dominated a generation of international affairs, a new world order, shaped by a new agenda, will emerge. If the physical degradation of the planet becomes the principal preoccupation of the global community, then environmental sustainability will become the organizing principle of this new order… For the first time since the emergence of the nation-state, all countries can unite around a common theme." - Lester R. Brown, speaking on the Rio Earth Summit.2

Framework for Global
Governance

“What’s old is new again."To some extent Agenda 21 fits this mold. Emanating from the 1992
United Nations Rio Earth Summit, officially known as the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), concerns were raised by
political researchers during the mid-to-late 1990s about the dangers posed
by federal agencies looking to implement Agenda 21 management
principles, particularly as it related to property rights, energy and
industry, and agriculture. Research articles were published, hearings took place, education
campaigns were launched, and the topic was a talking point on some radio
shows. Arguably, it wasn’t a mainstream issue - not in the sense of being a
nationally recognized news story. Nevertheless, an energized effort to
inform the public did make headway during that time.Then came the “war on terror, instantly becoming the international
talking point. Paralleling this was the intensified battle over climate
change. Agenda 21, it appeared to many, had faded into the
background. Ironically, and not unknown to the research community, the Kyoto
convention on climate change was launched through the Earth Summit process
and was an extension of the Agenda 21 concept. All of this said,
researchers and environmental lobbyists understood the long-term relevance
of Agenda 21, and a back-story political struggle continued between
advocates of private property versus those pushing socialized management. In
this sense Agenda 21 never went “out of style" although the general
public was largely ignorant of the controversy.Now, approximately 20 years after UNCED and the release of Agenda 21,
it has once again become a political focal point, especially in the United
States. Consider the following.In 2012 the Republican Party passed a resolution opposing Agenda 21,
and in January 2013 a Missouri House committee found itself with an
Agenda 21 ban proposal. In Oklahoma, two Agenda 21 ban
resolutions are on the table, and anti-Agenda 21 legislation is
before the Virginia House of Delegates. Educational meetings are springing
up across the country as political researchers seek to inform the public
about this critical issue.the Obama administration has put forward environmental and
economic platforms that are reminiscent of Agenda 21, and has
enhanced the federal funding of Local Governments for Sustainability, also
known as ICLEI - a global Agenda 21 support organization working with
more than 600 jurisdictions in the United States. On another front, agri-industry
giant Monsanto joined the World Business Council for Sustainable Development
(WBCSD) on January 22, 2013. The WBCSD, established to draw global
businesses into the Earth Summit framework, partners with more than 200
major corporations in the pursuit of Agenda 21 sustainability
concepts.And last year’s Rio+20 conference, meant to bolster the original 1992
UNCED package, helped reawaken the topic.Today, right or wrong, Agenda 21 is being dragged into an
assortment of arguments, fueled in large part by the heated rhetoric of
left-right pundits. This doesn’t mean it’s unimportant; It is, as it
has already impacted national, state/provincial, and local management
policies. But like so much else that can become emotionally charged, we tend
to lose something in the noise. That said, the purpose of this essay isn’t to explore the text of
Agenda 21. Many other researchers and writers have done this. Rather, we
need to focus on what Agenda 21 is, and what it was hoped to be.
This second part represents an underlying story, revealing the heartbeat of
RioOn the other side of the coin is the fact that.

Revisiting Agenda 21

Agenda 21 is not a binding treaty. It does not have a legal and
contractual mechanism in the same manner as multilateral treaties or
conventions. However, this doesn’t mean it’s benign. Far from it. Instead of being a treaty with enforcement mechanisms, this cornerstone
UNCED document places the emphasis on voluntary implementation. Each country
that signed Agenda 21 agreed to it as a framework, a
structural instrument used by nations to shape their own domestic policies
for a common “global good. In this sense it is a visioning blueprint meant
to guide the planet’s citizens into “a new cooperative global partnership.3Agenda 21, along with the other Rio agreements, act as a skeletal
structure for global governance.For those unfamiliar with global governance, it is a doctrine of pooled
international cooperation based on governments voluntarily acting for
the “general good through an agreed framework.This governance theme floated throughout the Earth Summit, and was
reflected in the post-Rio environmental literature. Consider a 1994 document
from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), a
highly influential and government-founded policy organization based in
Winnipeg, Manitoba. (Technical note: Maurice Strong, the Secretary-General
of UNCED, was an IISD board member during the 1990s).“UNCED also holds a broader significance. The environmental issue was set
up as a global issue in need for global action. There were demands to
strengthen international law, which could make nations toe the line. Non
governmental organizations (NGOs) had been forming global networks and were
working on global campaigns.These efforts at the global level directly contributed to building a
sense of global identity, or global citizenship which would be the first
step towards global governance.4

The global governance approach goes
something like this:

1) Through the work of special interest groups (NGOs or “civil
society actors) largely funded by “social change foundations, governments
and the public become “educated to an impending “global crisis. Regardless
if the crisis is real or perceived, it becomes a politically charged issue
and a tool for global transformation. Maurice Strong, the godfather
of Agenda 21, tells us; “Fundamental change almost always occurs in
response to crisis or the perception of crisis.52) The international community (UN agencies, regional bodies,
etc), already networked with these same foundations and special interest
groups, calls upon the world to “commit to action. A global facilitator,
usually the United Nations, brings “stakeholders to the negotiating table;
national governments, accredited non-governmental organizations,
representatives from regional and global agencies, and significant business
and financial players.3) Brought together in a Global Summit, these stakeholders
deliberate, make pronouncements, and engage in facilitated consensus
building. The result: A “social contract emerges in the form of a treaty,
accord, convention, or framework document. Now, depending on how it was
penned and the legal structures invoked, this new code may be a binding
contract or a voluntarily accepted strategy document - an official reference
point, which fits the description of Agenda 21.4) With the Summit wrapped up and armed with this treaty or action
plan, federal administrators then add their own “national flavor to the
“global change mandate, and begin pressuring civic departments to implement
the agenda; Regulations are written and enforced, new offices are birthed,
endless rounds of policies are drafted, funding is unleashed for “support
projects, private government-to-government and government-to-industry
associations pop up, lobbying and lawsuits sharpen the focus, information
campaigns take place, and political leaders shamelessly engage in
self-congratulation.5) As the federal government swings toward “departmental
implementation, something similar takes place with state/provincial and
local administrations. These jurisdictional entities, at times without
understanding the back-story, are pushed on board through federal
“sustainable development funding grants, technical assistance, and
regulatory mandates. Soon local governments mirror and shadow the federal
directive. “Think globally, act locally becomes realized. This is how broad
economic, social, and environmental creeds birthed at a United Nations event
in New York or Montreal or Rio - in the spirit of global cooperation -
become the unseen driver for “local management practices, in turn reflecting
the global change agenda. Mark Edward Vande Pol, a former Agenda 21 planner for Santa Cruz
Country, understands this global-to-local regulatory reality.

“You will never see it. You will never vote on it. No matter which
path they use, the agencies can pen new regulations under threat of
lawsuit and down the pipe it comes: enforceable administrative rules
without legislation. 6

6) One more layer is needed, however, to complete the cycle of
global governance. Each national government that agreed to the treaty or
framework document will, on a prescribed basis, report back to a permanent
UN body on the successes and challenges they have had in implementing it.
High level reviews will be held, reports will be issued, and more promises
made by national leaders to “pull the load and “pay our fair share. And
behind the country reporting mechanism is a gaggle of incessantly nagging
special interest groups, lawyers, and their own media spin-doctors.This is “global governance" - the sovereignty we supposedly have as an
independent nation, that is, our liberty to determine what works best
for our own citizenry, is “voluntarily hijacked" as part of a planetary
partnership for the global “general good.And this brings us back to Agenda 21. As a blueprint for what
the world should be, it offered management guidance for
practically every facet of life; consumption patterns and health care, calls
on poverty reduction, energy and resource development, land use, air
quality, biological diversity, human population levels, the role of women
and youth, hazardous waste, mountain environments, desert environments,
urban environments, science and technology, trade unions, agriculture and
transportation, education and citizenship, capacity building and financial
mechanisms, north-south technology transfers… the list goes on.By signing Agenda 21, governments in the developed world committed
to following a road map that would align domestic priorities with global
aspirations. Funding too was a central part of this package, and the Western
world was expected to bleed heavily in order to reach Agenda goals.Speaking on this aspect, the International Development Research Centre
wrote in their 1993 review of Agenda 21,

“...the huge sustainable development programs of Agenda 21
will require… substantial new and additional financial resources…
The UNCED Secretariat estimated that all of the listed Agenda 21
programs needed US $600 billion per year from 1993 to 2000 if they were
properly implemented. That included US $125 billion per year in
technical and economic assistance on grant or concessional terms from
developed countries…...Ultimately, all delegations agreed to the concept of building a
global partnership for sustainable development, for which funds would be
provided, and that a package approach of combining existing resource
flows with new and additional funds would be fundamental to the
agreement.7

But there was more. Agenda 21 was certainly the keystone text, but
four other documents were opened, and of these, two were binding agreements:1)The Convention on Biological Diversity, which was used
to justify the creation of limited human-use and no human-use biosphere
reserves.2)The Framework Convention on Climate Change, which formed
the backdrop for the Kyoto Protocol and set in motion twenty-plus
years of “climate change programs and the spending of vast swaths of
money.These Earth Summit documents formed the backbone of the global
sustainability agenda. And even if nations didn’t ratify a particular text,
such as the case of the United States and theConvention on Biological
Diversity, the spirit of the Convention was still applied
domestically through partnerships between federal agencies and international
environmental organizations. If you bought one part of the Earth Summit
package, you worked to implement it all.It was no surprise, therefore, that after the Rio conference a host of
government sponsored “sustainable development campaigns came into existence.
Every federal and state/provincial department lathered themselves in the
“holy waters" of sustainability. It became a mantra, a creed, a guiding
light. It became a policy industry unto itself. Governments had turned
green, and forests of reports were generated to prove this fact. In Canada,
even the military jumped on the bandwagon, producing a series of
“sustainable development assessment documents titled Environmentally
Sustainable Defence Activities: A Sustainable Development Strategy for
National Defence. I’m sure a star was given for how many times the word
“sustainable could be used. I had a small taste of this industry in the mid-1990s when I was
asked to co-chair a pilot Economic Roundtable for my community. This
Roundtable was an extension of the Manitoba Rural Development agency and
was linked to a provincial government program known as the Manitoba Round
Table on Environment and Economy, itself heavily connected to
Agenda 21 implementation goals. The idea was simple: Establish local committees of handpicked people who
could brainstorm on projects reflective of sustainable development, and then
seek to implement these ideas by presenting a united front to municipal
governments. However, in a town of 800 people, where everyone knows each
other - and most are respective of jurisdictional boundaries - our unelected
committee chose to be “small-time, limiting ourselves to a few low level
“community beautification projects. In a couple of years we closed shop.But the push for adopting the Agenda 21 blueprint was palpable in
other locations. For example,
Santa Cruz County was the first place in the US to adopt the United Nations
Local Agenda 21 program. Thus, it became a proving ground of sorts for
the creation of a locally administered and enforceable eco-bureaucracy.
Here, the new green reality was expressed in a myriad of regulatory
measures; prohibitive zoning requirements, set-asides and green spaces,
extra fees and permitting stipulations, pre-determined public hearings,
policies upon policies, inspections, fines and lawsuits.As one who swam in this current, saw the dangers and began speaking out
against the bureaucratic nonsense - which, by the way, guarantees economic
and environmental failure - Mark Edward Vande Pol gives us a taste of
how “sustainability is plied against property owners.

“Local regulatory actions are usually funded by and under the
direction of superceding regulatory authority. The policies are invoked
one precedent at a time; the takings are accomplished one landowner at a
time to be replicated elsewhere. Their technical premises are nearly
always based upon how local conditions serve an agenda that is set at a
higher level. Thus, all environmental politics ARE local.8

Other cities and counties followed the lead of Santa Cruz. Today,
hundreds of jurisdictions have adopted sustainable development action plans,
many linked with the governmental association known as ICLEI. As local
administrators tailor the agenda to fit their own community, residents and
businesses often find themselves faced with the uneasy feeling of being
managed. Ultimately local authorities are tasked with implementing sustainable
development mandates, but we need to remember that the initiative first
emerged through federal commitments.In the United States, Agenda 21 was expanded through the
President’s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD), established under
Bill Clinton “to begin translating the vision of Agenda 21 into U.S.
action. 9The PCSD, which operated until 1999, worked to frame
national priorities in this light, including population stabilization “in
the United States and the world, 10transportation and energy
planning, “sustainable agriculture, and “education for sustainability.
Agenda 21 was further advanced by the US Environmental Protection
Agency, State Department, Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture,
Department of Housing, and the Department of the Interior.In my country, Canada, Agenda 21 and the other Rio commitments
were quickly attached to our own federal departments and branches;
Environment Canada, External Affairs/Foreign Affairs, Canadian Parks
Service/Parks Canada, Department of Canadian Heritage, and the Department of
Natural Resources. The Government of Canada used the UNCED as a place-marker
for sustainability targets.Remember I was telling you a reporting mechanism existed to bring global
governance full circle? Canada’s 1996 report to the UN on its work in
implementing sustainable development was revealing. Here, Canada admitted to
fostering “population levels consistent with sustainable development,"
including “direct support for population programming through… the
International Planned Parenthood Federation."13Canada also expressed interest in the “establishment of an international
financial and economic system that is conducive to sustainable development,
and that this reformed global financial regime would “be a cornerstone in
the effort “to implement Agenda 21.12
Domestic reform was necessary too.

How would this happen? Education was on top of the list. But more than
that, the report admitted to financial experiments in the effort to
re-orient personal behavior.

“Reducing personal and household consumption is a greater challenge,
particularly in the area of personal transportation. A variety of
programs now exist to help consumers understand the environmental
impacts of their consumption decisions and to make choices that are
better for the environment. Experiments in the pricing of goods and
services are part of this process. (italics added) 14

Regional multi-national environmental programs were also explored,
carrying the Agenda 21 framework across North American boundaries.
Here are two brief, historical examples.

The US-Mexico Border XXI Program was a
bi-national project that sought to address environmental and social
concerns along the US-Mexico border. Boarder XXI was openly tied to
Agenda 21, using it as the setting to entrench its mandate. 15

The Great Plains Partnership (GPP) was an
experimental program that linked 13 Great Plains states, three Canadian
prairie provinces, and a sliver of northern Mexico into a cooperative
system of economic and environmental planning for a “sustainable future.
It was launched with the support of many federal, state/provincial, and
local agencies - and had the backing of the Western Governors’
Association. GPP symposium papers and research documents connected the
project to Agenda 21. As one background document noted, “it has
become clear that the implementation of Agenda 21, the
‘blueprint’ of sustainable development at the Rio Earth Summit, must be
actively pursued on the local level.16

From local to national to regional: Each level of jurisdiction was to
play its part in what Maurice Strong dubbed, “the new world order called for
at Rio.

What Could Have Been

Like all major UN conferences, the 1992 Rio Earth Summit was preceded by
a host of preparatory meetings and “stakeholder forums. In the years leading
up to UNCED, dozens of such events filled the global calendar - each
spitting out reams of reports and declarations.One event, however, deserves special note: the 1990 World Environment
Energy and Economic Conference (WEEEC). This gathering is now almost
entirely forgotten, yet we need to examine what transpired, for the WEEEC
demonstrated “what could have been, and what was hoped for by so
many; ratcheting global governance up to the level of world government. The WEEEC, also known as World ‘90, was sponsored by the Government of
Manitoba, UNESCO, 17 and the International Council of
Associations for Science Education. Maurice Strong was the patron of WEEEC.
Colin N. Power, Assistant Director of UNESCO, attended the event and wrote
the Preface to its final report. Gary Filmon, then Premier of Manitoba
(equivalent to a US state governor) gave his public endorsement, as did Glen
Cummings, then Minister of Environment for Manitoba. Numerous professors and
experts from Canada, the US, Europe, and Asia participated. In fact, more
than 3000 delegates from around the world attended, including
representatives from government and special interest groups.In other words, this event wasn’t small time.Years later I talked with Glen Cummings, who was my provincial
representative to the Manitoba Legislature, and asked him about World ‘90.
He explained that while the event was successful, it didn’t translate into
workable actions.I’m so thankful, I thought to myself.The purpose of WEEEC was clear: Influence the upcoming Earth Summit. And
the World 90 theme was telling; “Sustainable Development Strategies and the
New World Order. 18 The title of its final report mirrored this
theme:Sustainable Development for a New World Agenda.Chapter two chilled me: “Towards A Global Green Constitution."

“The issues are not about if a global politics is necessary.
The question is how do we achieve binding agreements in Law
complete with effective programs for applying sanctions against
non-compliance that would oblige each nation, regardless of size, to
abide by a set of principles that are required to guarantee the survival
of life on this earth. Perhaps we will find that there is no other
alternative to a system of rigid controls that some would equate to a
police state. "Unfortunately, in order to save the planet from biocide, there have
to be very powerful constraints from doing the ‘wrong’ things. The
constraints must transcend national boundaries, be world-around and
enforceable. There would be a need for an agency for preventing
eco-vandals from acting unilaterally." 19

This regime, the report laid out, would be equipped with a global
environmental enforcement arm. The chapter explained; “Enforcement agencies
would need the power to act without being invited by the offending nation.
Non-compliance would invite sanctions, but “if sanctions do not work, then
physical occupation and the installation of a World Trusteeship would be
imposed upon the offending nations.The heart of Chapter 2 was the idea of a “Global Green Constitution, an
ethical and legal contract for global citizenship.

“The Constitution would need to be the world-around political
expression of a radical new value system; values that ensure a
sustainable society… governments would come to power that could most
effectively formulate national policy implications of a Global Green
Constitution.The United Nations would be a signator and take responsibility for
the global commons…...Nation states would each be signators and take responsibility for
the impacts of industrial and commercial activities that occur within
territorial boundaries. A Global Environmental Congress having
Constitutional authority and responsibility would inspect and determine
the degree of compliance of each signator nation. 20

Under the subheading of “Social Justice," it was explained that the new
ethic would enshrine the “principle of global economic equality" through a
system of “Energy Accounting" with engineered, pre-determined amounts of
energy allocated to each human being. Resources such as oil have peaked, it
was said, and an innovative green accounting system was needed for the
planet—roughly paralleling what the Technocracy movement from the 1930s
advocated. 21 Moreover, if we want to make
this architecture of “Social Justice" efficient and feasible, then a “global
policy of one child per family" would have to be implemented.22
Protecting the planet was paramount; de-humanized wilderness zones
would have to be established, after all, “it is the human population that
needs management, not wildlife.23 And
tolerance would be imposed as a “Human Right,

“Popular or not, green governments will oppose any culture if it
proves to be prejudicial by reasons of gender, age, colour, race,
religion, belief, sexual orientation, mental or physical condition,
marital status, family composition, source of income, political belief,
nationality, language preference, or place of origin."24

Chapter 2 also placed a heavy emphasis on educating children:“A massive
and persuasive educational effort is required to develop a global
perspective among the people of each nation state. Each nation’s degree of
dedication to educating the people would be the first indication of green
government." 25Other parts of the report echoed the importance of education; “Curriculum
needs to emphasize values education, incorporating—on a need to know
basis—knowledge, conceptual learning and skills. The task of educators would
thus have to be re-configured; “The role of the teacher will inevitably have
to change. They will become more involved in facilitating changes of
attitudes and guiding students to gain values…"26Here was an introduction to the concept of One World, fashioned as a
coercive-styled global government operating under the pretext of stemming a
planetary environmental breakdown, complete with a Technocracy-oriented
green-energy economic order, wealth redistribution piggy backed on Social
Justice, 27 enforced political correctness
under the guise of “human rights, and the modification of beliefs and values
to fit this new age.But as noted previously, the far-reaching world government dream of the
WEEEC - as laid out in chapter 2 - didn’t take shape at the Rio Earth
Summit. Granted, we can discern elements of this “global green regime
lurking in the subtext of UNCED - after all, the Forward to the World ‘90
document puts the connection into perspective; “We must learn to accept the
fact that environmental considerations are part of a unified management of
our planet. 28Not only did the WEEEC “world government goal not come to fruition, I
doubt that World ‘90 participants expected something this dangerous to even
be considered at the Rio event. Sure, some special interest groups and
influential figureheads world have been hopeful, but experienced politicians
take a more pragmatic perspective. So what was the point of introducing such a far-reaching plan? Simple: It
embedded the progressive cause of global governance by providing a wall upon
which to bounce ideas. A green “world government" of this proportion wasn’t
going to emerge from Rio, but now global governance - the voluntary
relinquishment of a proportional amount of national sovereignty and a change
in domestic priorities for a “greater good - seemed reasonable and
responsible in comparison. In other words, it gave a backdrop upon which to
hang more realistic concepts. It was also a psychological driver meant to advance the bigger vision of
“world government."By opening the idea of supra-national management, it allowed participants
to “consider futures," reflecting the aspiration of what could be as
shapers of society. It was a “visioneering exercise" that allowed
participants to “feel their future and become comfortable with it.
29For those attendees of the WEEEC who were oriented to “world government,
and Maurice Strong himself has flirted in this camp, the prospect of an
“international authority" would have been exciting to hear at such a
prestigious venue. Yet, even to men like Strong, the UNCED
Secretary-General, who is both a visionary and pragmatist, the realization
of an authoritative and enforceable “global green constitution" was
impracticable for Rio. The very fact that World ‘90, as an important prequel to the Earth
Summit, was willing to contemplate such an idea is troubling. Furthermore,
World ‘90 wasn’t the only event that witnessed elevated “new world order"
language. Similar talk, albeit less blatant in its pronouncements,
permeated the run-up to Rio. Special interest groups from every corner
screamed for “international law," global “environmental courts," and a
redrawn world financial system. Not surprisingly, after the Earth Summit ended, many special interest
groups were upset by the fact that sweeping institutional changes didn’t
happen - at least not to the measure they were anticipating. Instead of the
United Nations emerging as the final global enforcement regime for
sustainable development, nations committed to implement Agenda 21 the
way they saw fit. Of course, this national angle doesn’t negate Agenda 21,
it just puts it into the context of already existing powers and
administrations, each equipped with an indwelling battery or regulatory
regimes and enforcement agencies.National, state/provincial, and local governments would do the bidding of
global strategists.

Conclusion

The Rio Earth Summit and Agenda 21 did provide the framework for
global governance, and it re-set domestic and international priorities for
the post-Cold War era. This is the legacy of Agenda 21: It provided
the justification for governments to manage resources and populations in the
name of sustainable development.This puts Agenda 21 into perspective. It also implies that federal
lawmakers, especially in the Western world, will handle sustainable
development goals in a similar fashion. This indeed is the case. At the same
time, its “on-the-ground implementation still boils down to action at the
local level. Here things can become murky, for county/municipal
administrators might or may not understand how local policies
fit with Agenda 21. And often they don’t grasp this connection, as
the lineage can become blurred in a myriad of paperwork shuffles and
administrative changes. Moreover, just because a local county/municipality
uses the words “sustainable development, doesn’t mean the county is directly
pursing Agenda 21 goals. It might be, but this is not necessarily the
case: Keep in mind that since this term was introduced by higher
jurisdictions during the 1990s, it has since become a general trend.
The bottom line: Don’t toss around unproven accusations of Agenda 21
or engage in knee-jerk reactions to what might, or may not be, Agenda 21
related issues. The reason I’m voicing this is because, as the political
rhetoric heats up, people tend to say or do things that lower the
effectiveness of their message - especially when operating with less than
established facts. In other words, do some serious homework first and be
tactful in your approach.Moreover, if you’re concerned about this issue in your jurisdiction,
particularly over land planning, take the time to inform yourself about the
Rio process - especially in how it was pushed by your federal and
state/provincial authorities. Then, armed with this background data, you can
begin to piece together how this ties-in or doesn’t within your
particular situation. This may require multiple trips to a law library or
state/provincial archives. But do your homework! If there is a direct and
documentable lineage, then you know where your local planning measures spin
from, and you can start formulating a meaningful response.But as I caution against overemphasizing Agenda 21, making it into
a catch-all boogieman, a reverse mistake can be made; to not take it
seriously. Remember, the Rio Earth Summit and Agenda 21
were purposely designed as catalysts for global governance and total
transformation. This is not a “conspiracy theory," political fantasy, or
urban legend. It was the stated goal of the UNCED Secretary-General and
almost the entire entourage of government delegates. It was also the desire
of thousands of representatives from the NGO community, who, organized by
Maurice Strong’s wife, Hanna, envisioned a far more radical outcome.In this respect one more point needs to be made. The Rio Earth Summit
entrenched a new cultural model whereby earth-loyalties takes precedence,
and this meme rapidly spread into schools, churches, the media industry, and
other institutions. Today we see the result of this across the board, for
Rio set in motion the largest green propaganda industry the world has ever
seen. It re-energized Earth Day, it placed the green agenda in the minds of
countless youth, it invigorated a sense of global citizenship.During the final hours of the 1992 Earth Summit, then UN
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali closed with these words,

“I should like to conclude by saying that the spirit of Rio must
create a new form of good citizenship. After loving his neighbour as
the Bible required him to, post-Rio man must also love the world,
including the flowers, birds and trees—every part of that natural
environment that we are constantly destroying."Over and above the moral contract with God, over and above the
social contract concluded with men, we must now conclude an ethical and
political contract with nature, with this Earth to which we owe our very
existence and which gives us life."To the ancients, the Nile was a god to be venerated, as was the
Rhine, an infinite source of European myths, or the Amazonian forest,
the mother of forests. Throughout the world, nature was the abode of the
divinities that gave the forest, the desert or the mountains a
personality which commanded worship and respect. The Earth had a soul.
To find that soul again, to give it new life, that is the essence of
Rio." 31

At the risk of a small rabbit trail, it must be noted that this post-Rio
“reality" was understood by Maurice Strong. Together with Mikhail Gorbachev
and Steven
Rockefeller, they took the UNCED experience - which included an
Earth Charter component - and used it as a midwife to birth the
Earth Charter, a green ethical constitution for the planet.Speaking to the Rio-linked Earth Charter, Strong wrote that,
“Collective behavior tends to change private behaviour."
32 Steven Rockefeller recognized it as “one way
of promoting an ecological and social transformation of society."
33 Gorbachev called it “a kind of Ten Commandments"34
and proclaimed,

“In its essence the Earth Charter shifts the focus to people
on the Earth, their responsibilities, their morals and spirituality,
their ways of consumption. To save humankind and all future generations,
we must save the Earth. By saving the Earth, humankind saves himself; It
is that easy to understand!" 35

This is identical to the base-flavor of Agenda 21, because it
was built on that foundation.Others too picked up on the new ethics of the post-Rio environment. As
the International Institute for Sustainable Development reminds us,

“We have to completely revise our western understanding of what it is
to be an inhabitant of the planet Earth, our human story and the western
story…"We must pass from a human-centred to an earth-centred sense of
reality and value. We must now recognize the larger earth community, and
not the human community, as normative as regards [to] reality and
value." 36

In closing, consider the following from the United Nations Environmental
Programme publication, Ethics and Agenda 21,

“Let us by all means think globally and act locally. But let us also
think locally as well as globally, and try to tune our global and local
thinking as the several notes of a single and common chord."
37

That’s Agenda 21 - you will assimilate in service to the Earth.
Heaven help us.